Ara Pacis

The Roman Empire

Video transcript

DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
We're standing in the marvelous new museum that
was just done by Richard Meier to hold the Ara Pacis, one of
the most important monuments from Augustan Rome. DR. BETH HARRIS: Ara Pacis
means altar of peace. Augustus was the
first emperor of Rome. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
And the person who established the Pax Romana,
that is, the Roman peace. The event that prompted
the building of this altar to peace under Augustus was
Augustus' triumphal return from military campaigns in
what is now Spain and France. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
when he returned, the Senate vowed to create an
altar commemorating the peace that he established
in the empire. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
And apparently, on July 4 in the year
13, the sacred precinct was marked out on which the
altar itself would be built. It's really kind of
wonderful because today, it's July 4, 2012. DR. BETH HARRIS: Now we're
talking about the Ara Pacis, but of course, this
has been reconstructed from many, many fragments
that were discovered, some in the 17th century,
mostly in the 20th century. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Actually,
it's a small miracle that we've been able to
reconstruct this at all. It had been lost to memory. DR. BETH HARRIS: The remains of
it lay under someone's palace. When it was recognized
what these fragments were, it became really
important to excavate them and to reconstruct the altar. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
That was finally done under Mussolini, the
fascist leader in the years leading up to the
Second World War, and during the Second World War. And that was important
to Mussolini, because Mussolini
identified himself with Augustus, the
first emperor of Rome. Mussolini was very much
trying to reestablish a kind of Italian empire. We should talk a little
bit about what an altar is. DR. BETH HARRIS: Sure. We talk about the
altar, really what we're looking at are the
walls of the precinct around what is in the middle,
the altar where sacrifices would have occurred. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
The altar itself is interesting and important
when we think about Augustus. Augustus is establishing
a centralized power. Rome had been, since its
earliest founding years when it was under
the rule of kings, it had been controlled
by the Senate. It had been a republic. DR. BETH HARRIS: That's right. And the Senate was
basically a group of the leading elder
citizens of Rome. So Rome was a republic, and
it really was a republic until Julius Caesar, who was a
dictator and Augustus' uncle. And then Caesar is
assassinated, there's civil war, and then peace is
established by Augustus. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Right. Augustus, whose real
name was Octavian, is given the term Augustus
as a kind of honorific as a way of
representing his power. And it's interesting
the kind of politics that Augustus
involved himself with. He gave great power back to
the Senate, but by doing so, he established real and
central authority for himself. DR. BETH HARRIS: He made
himself princeps, or first among equals. But of course he
controlled everything. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: He
also held the title of pontificus maximus, that is,
the head priest of the state religion, and so he
held tremendous power. DR. BETH HARRIS: Now
don't forget, too, that his uncle Julius
Caesar had been made a god, and so he also represented
himself as the son of a god. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And so the
idea of establishing this altar has a political as well
as spiritual significance. DR. BETH HARRIS:
He's looking back to the golden age of Greece
of the fifth century BC, but he's also looking back
to the Roman republic. He is reestablishing some
of the ancient rituals of traditional Roman religion. He is embracing
traditional Roman values. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
But even as he's doing that, he's
remaking Rome radically. He's changing Rome from a city
of brick to a city of marble, and the Ara Pacis is a
spectacular example of that. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
when we look closely at the Ara Pacis, what
we're going to see is that this speaks to
the sense of a golden age that Augustus brought
about in the Roman Empire. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: One of
the most remarkable elements of the Ara Pacis is all of
the highly decorative relief carving in the lower frieze. DR. BETH HARRIS: And that
goes all the way around. It apparently shows more than
50 different species of plants. They're very natural in that
we can identify the species, but they're also
highly abstracted, and they form these
beautiful symmetrical and linear patterns. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
There is a real order that's given to the
complexity of nature here. Let me just describe
quickly what I'm seeing. This massive, elegant
acanthus leaf, which is a native plant, which
were made famous in Corinthian capitals. And then almost like a
candelabra growing up from it, we see these tendrils of all
kinds of plants that spiral. DR. BETH HARRIS:
And there are also animal forms within
these leaves and plants. We find frogs and
lizards and birds. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
And the carving is quite deep, so that
there is this sharp contrast between the brilliance
of the external marble and then the shadows
that are cast as it seems to lift
off the surface. DR. BETH HARRIS:
And art historians interpret all of this as
a symbol of fertility, of the abundance of the
golden age that Augustus brought about. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: You also
see that same pattern repeated in the pilasters that
frame these panels. And then we also have meander
that moves horizontally around the entire exterior. And it's above that meander that
we see the narrative phrases. DR. BETH HARRIS: These panels
relate again to this golden age that Augustus establishes. These refer back to
Aeneas, Rome's founder and Augustus' ancestor. We see other allegorical figures
representing Rome and peace. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We have to
be a little bit careful when we try to characterize what
precisely is being represented. There are lots of
conflicting interpretations. DR. BETH HARRIS: And these
allegorical or mythological scenes appear on the front
and back of the altar. And then on the sides of the
altar we see a procession. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We've
walked around the outer wall, and we're now looking
at a panel that's actually in quite
good condition. But that doesn't mean we
really know what's going on. DR. BETH HARRIS: No,
there's a lot of argument about what the figure in
the center represents. Some art historians think
this figure represents Venus, some think it represents
a figure of peace, some the figure of
Tellus, or Mother Earth. In any case, she
is clearly a figure that suggests fertility
and abundance. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: She's
beautifully rendered. Look at the way the
drapery clings to her torso so closely as to really
review the flesh underneath, like the goddesses
on the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Greece. DR. BETH HARRIS: And on her lap
sit two children, one of whom offers her some fruit. There's fruit on her lap. On either side of her sit
two mythological figures who art historians
think represent the winds of the
earth and the sea. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Well,
look at the way the drapes that they're holding
whip up, creating these beautiful almost
halos around their bodies. DR. BETH HARRIS: And at her
feet we see an ox and a sheep. So there's a sense of harmony,
of peace and fertility. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
And that must have been such a rare thing
in the ancient world. DR. BETH HARRIS:
Well, Augustus reigns after decades of civil war
after the assassination of Julius Caesar. So I think there
is a powerful sense that this was the golden age. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: So,
let's walk to the sides now, and take a look
at the procession. The frieze moves from the
back wall of the precinct up towards the very
front on both sides, and the figures are also facing
towards the main staircase. DR. BETH HARRIS: Art
historians are not really clear what event
is being depicted here. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Art historians aren't clear about
any of this, are we? DR. BETH HARRIS: No. There are a couple
of possibilities that have been raised. One is that what we are
seeing is the procession that would have taken
place at the time that the altar was inaugurated. The figures that we
see here are priests, and we can identify those
figures because of the veils on their heads,
and there also seem to be members of
Augustus' family, although their identities are
not quite firmly established. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We think we
know which figure is Augustus, although the marble
itself is not in especially good
condition, and we've lost the front of his body. And we also think
we can identify one of his most
important ministers. DR. BETH HARRIS: And
that would be Agrippa. If we think about
this as looking back to the frieze on the Parthenon
from the golden age of Greece, those figures are all
ideally beautiful. They don't represent
anyone specific so much as the Athenian
people generally. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: But
these are portraits. DR. BETH HARRIS: That's right. And we can't always
identify them for certain, but they really are
specific individuals on a specific date taking
part in a specific event. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: It's
interesting to think about it, because of course throughout the
republic, portraiture in stone was something that the Romans
were extremely good at. And so it doesn't surprise
me that they would not look to the idealized so
much as look to the specific. DR. BETH HARRIS: We also
notice those differences in the depths of the carving. Some figures are
represented in high relief. Other figures that are supposed
to be in the background are represented in low relief. So there's a real illusion
of space and of a crowd, here at the procession. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Another
way that the specificity of the Romans is expressed
is through the inclusion of children. This is a sacred event,
and a formal event. And yet there are children
doing what children do. That is to say, they're not
always paying attention. DR. BETH HARRIS: There are
a couple of interpretations that have been offered about
the presence of children here. Augustus was actually
worried about the birth rate and passed laws that
encouraged marriage and the birth of children. It originally was painted. We would have seen pinks
and blues and greens, and it's very difficult
to imagine that when we look at the marble today. DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Well, it's true, especially in Meier's building,
which is so stark and modern. It's almost a little
garish to imagine how brightly painted
this would have been. They were pretty bright. DR. BETH HARRIS: They were. So one of the things that
Augustus said of himself was that he found
Rome a city of brick, and he left it a city of marble. Augustus created
an imperial city. And here we are 2,000
years later in the room that Augustus created.